Donald Trump is going to be on that podium whether the world champions like it or not. FIFA has reportedly agreed to let the US President freely join the winning team during the trophy lift at the 2026 World Cup final on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Normally, the FIFA president and the host nation's head of state hand the trophy to the winning captain and then step back. The players celebrate. That's the tradition. Trump, apparently, has other ideas — and FIFA, under Gianni Infantino, seems perfectly happy to accommodate them.
We've seen this before
This isn't speculation. We have footage. When Chelsea lifted the FIFA Club World Cup earlier in 2025 after a 3-0 win over PSG, Trump planted himself in the middle of the celebrations and didn't move. Reece James had the trophy in his hands. The confetti was falling. Cole Palmer looked like he'd just seen a ghost. The moment that should have belonged entirely to the players had a very prominent uninvited guest front and center.
Now FIFA is making it official policy for the biggest trophy in world football. The World Cup final presentation is one of the most watched moments in global sport — and it's going to have a political figure embedded in it by design, not accident.
Whether you find it entertaining or deeply uncomfortable likely depends on your politics. What's harder to argue is that it shifts the narrative away from the team that actually wins the thing. Whoever lifts that trophy on July 19 will share the image with someone who didn't kick a ball.
Pochettino carrying the weight of a nation
Meanwhile, the man trying to make sure the home side is in that final is dealing with his own considerable pressure. USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino was unusually blunt in a recent FIFA interview about what the job actually demands.
"The responsibility is enormous," he said. "Because it's a responsibility in which people need to identify with what they see on the field, with what the players produce."
He took over in September 2024, which gave him reasonable runway — but the March international window produced some uncomfortable results, and the Americans were notably absent from their own opening win, a 4-1 defeat of Paraguay in Los Angeles that Trump skipped. Pochettino's broader point, that hosting a World Cup transforms a country's relationship with football, is well-documented. Whether his team can deliver results worthy of that moment is still very much an open question. USA's odds to go deep in this tournament will hinge almost entirely on how quickly Pochettino can iron out the defensive frailties that have surfaced in recent windows.
"Every country that has hosted a FIFA World Cup has been transformed," Pochettino said. No argument there. The question is what happens when the transformation requires actually winning matches on home soil.
